Lucinda Williams talks with Ariel Levy

Lucinda Williams was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and released her first country-and-blues album, “Ramblin’,” in 1979. She has received three Grammy Awards, including one for Best Contemporary Folk Album, for “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.” Her other recordings include “Sweet Old World,” “Essence,” “World Without Tears,” “West,” “Little Honey,” and “Blessed,” which came out last year.

Ariel Levy joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2008. She is the author of “Female Chauvinist Pigs.”